Bukit Timah Railway Station

The Bukit Timah Railway Station (BTRS) was originally constructed to serve as one of five railway stations along the Singapore-Kranji Railway. Together with the Alexandra and Tanglin Halt stations, BTRS was later used to service the suburban areas of Singapore.¹ The station was closed down when the Malaysian-operated railway service in Singapore ceased operations in July 2011.² The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) gazetted the station as a conservation building on 27 May that same year.³

Background
The first railway in Singapore, the Singapore-Kranji Railway, was completed in 1903. The line ran between Tank Road and Kranji and consisted of five stations: Singapore, Newton, Cluny, Bukit Timah and Woodlands. Extensions to the line were later made to Tanjong Pagar and Pasir Panjang.⁴ In 1912, the Federated Malay States Railways (FSMR), which managed the railway lines in Malaya, took over the management of railways in Singapore. Following the takeover, the railways network in Singapore was managed as part of the Malayan railways system.⁵

The BTRS was one of five stations in Singapore that made up the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur railway route. The FSMR started operating the route from 1923 following the completion of the Causeway. The Malayan railway company Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) took over operating the route from 1948.⁶

In 1932, a deviation from the main Singapore-Kuala Lumpur line was completed. The 13.6 km-long route ran through Bukit Timah, Tanglin and Alexandra before terminating at Tanjong Pagar. The deviation was part of a plan to double the length of the Woodlands-Tank Road line, with a terminus at the foot of Fort Canning. Work had started on the new line but was stopped because of an economic slump in 1921. The doubling scheme was later abandoned and the deviation was built instead.⁷

In March 1966, a branch route between Bukit Timah and Jurong opened to traffic.⁸ The line was constructed by Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) to serve the newly established industrial estate of Jurong, while KTM maintained the tracks.⁹

Unlike the art décor style of the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, the architectural design of the BTRS is a simple one. The station comprises an unadorned brick building constructed in the style of traditional stations commonly found in the small towns of the United Kingdom and Malaysia.¹⁰ In its final years, the station operated mainly as a freight interchange. It was also where key tokens were exchanged between drivers and the stationmaster.¹¹

Transfer of railway lands
On 27 November 1990, then Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew signed a Point of Agreement (POA) with Malaysia’s then Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin to settle the legal dispute over the land surrounding KTM railway stations in Singapore.¹² Under a 1918 ordinance, KTM was allowed to use the 63 hectares of land surrounding the Kranji, Keppel (Tanjong Pagar) and Woodlands stations for the purpose of operating the railway service.¹³ After Singapore gained independence in 1965, KTM retained ownership of the railway land and structures.

Under the POA, KTM was to move its terminus station from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands and return the land surrounding the railway stations in Singapore to the Singapore government. In return, KTM would receive three parcels of land in Singapore to be jointly developed by a Singapore-Malaysia company with a 40-60 ownership.¹⁴

Between 1991 and 1998, Malaysia made several requests for Singapore to add the land surrounding the BTRS to the POA agreement.¹⁵ The implementation of the POA was not smooth sailing as Malaysia questioned whether the POA was a legally binding document and delayed moving its immigration and customs checkpoint from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands.¹⁶

Closure
The BTRS, together with the other KTM railway stations in Singapore, was decommissioned in July 2011. The railway structures, including the tracks, buildings, gates, posts, ballasts and cables, were dismantled over several months following the decommissioning. The BTRS building, platform, adjacent tracks and the nearby steel bridge were preserved.¹⁷

After its closure, the BTRS was used as a venue for several public events, including a theatre production by Drama Box, a Chinese theatre company. The station and the railway tracks were also opened to the public for nature walks.¹⁸
 
Green lung and rail corridor
Following the decommissioning of the railway service, several interest groups raised concerns about the future of the areas surrounding the station. Given its proximity to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, there were calls for the flora and fauna around the BTRS to be preserved.¹⁹ There were also concerns that the natural environment surrounding the station and railway tracks would be damaged during the removal works.²⁰

In response to such concerns, the Singapore government announced that the areas around the former railway tracks at Bukit Timah would be conserved as part of the planned Rail Corridor, which would also feature recreational and leisure venues.²¹



Author
Jaime Koh



References
1. “Rail Corridor: History,” Urban Redevelopment Authority, accessed 2011.
2. Grace Chua, “Final Pieces of KTM Track Removed,” Straits Times, 1 January 2012, 18. (From NewspaperSG)
3. “Bukit Timah Railway Conserved,” Urban Redevelopment Authority, accessed 27 May 2011.
4. Federated Malay States Railways, Fifty Years of Railways in Malaya, 1885–1935 ([Kuala Lumpur, F.M.S., Kyle, Palmer & Co., Ltd., printers and engravers, 1935]), 24. (Call no. RRARE q385.09595 FED; microfilm NL25928)
5. Federated Malay States Railways, Fifty Years of Railways in Malaya, 1885–1935, 24; Alias Mohamed, ed., Malayan Railways: 100 Years, 1885–1985 (Kuala Lumpur: AWS Communications Management, 1985), 37. (Call no. RSING 385.095951 MAL)
6. Federated Malay States Railways, Fifty Years of Railways in Malaya, 1885–1935, 24; Malayan Railway (Kuala Lumpur: The Malayan Railway, 1955), 2.
7. Federated Malay States Railways, Fifty Years of Railways in Malaya, 1885–1935, 24.
8. J. A. Stanistreet, Keretapi Tanah Melayu: The Malayan Railway (Lingfield: Oakwood Press, 1974), 6. (Call no. RCLOS 385.09595 STA)
9. Alias Mohamed, Malayan Railways: 100 Years, 1885–1985, 91.
10. Uma Shankari, “Tanjong Pagar, Bt Timah Stations To Be Conserved,” Business Times, 9 April 2011, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
11. Urban Redevelopment Authority, “Rail Corridor: History.”
12. Kor Kian Beng, “Points of Agreement: A 20-Year Saga,” Straits Times, 25 May 2010, 6. (From NewspaperSG)
13. Kor, “Points of Agreement: A 20-Year Saga.”
14. Kor, “Points of Agreement: A 20-Year Saga.”
15. Kor, “Points of Agreement: A 20-Year Saga.”
16. Kor, “Points of Agreement: A 20-Year Saga”; “Malayan Railway Land: A Slow, Bumpy Ride To Agreement,” Straits Times, 12 April 1997, 34 (From NewspaperSG); “Malaysia Misses Immigration Row Deadline – Singapore,” Reuters, 16 December 1998). (From Factiva via NLB’s eResources website)
17. Chua, “Final Pieces of KTM Track Removed.”
18. Corrie Tan, “On the Trail of a Mythic Monkey,” Straits Times, 28 August 2012, 5; “Former Train Stations Open for Events; Public Can Now Make Use of the Buildings for Ad-Hoc Activities,” Today, 5 April 2012, 32. (From NewspaperSG)
19. Grace Chua, “Parts of KTM Railway To Be Retained,” Straits Times, 23 July 2011, 14. (From NewspaperSG)
20. Esther Ng, “Old Bukit Timah Railway Station To Be Opened to Public,” Today, 3 September 2011, 8. (From NewspaperSG)
21. “Rail Corridor: About the Project,” Urban Redevelopment Authority, accessed 2011.  

The information in this article is valid as at 14 November 2013 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.